Dyson Earns Sixth Motul Pole Award of 2022 in TA Class at VIR, Debuts New Car and New Number

October 8, 2022

ALTON, Va. (October 8, 2022) – Practice and qualifying are complete for the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli’s TA/XGT/SGT/GT classes at the Mission Foods VIR SpeedTour at VIRginia International Raceway. Chris Dyson won the Motul Pole Award with a blazing fast lap time of 1:44.086. This is Dyson’s first race behind the wheel of the No. 16 ALTWELL CBD Ford Mustang, which is a new Ave-Riley chassis with a new number harkening back to the Dyson family’s racing legacy.

“It's fantastic to come out here with a new car and set the pole, especially when you’ve got the opposition like we do here in Trans Am,” said Dyson. “Caps off to everybody at Riley Technologies for delivering a really stunning piece of machinery. I’m really happy to have the No. 16 back on the car this weekend, it brings back a lot of great memories for us, especially here at VIR. I am just absolutely thrilled to have the ALTWELL car starting from the pole. Let’s just try to keep it there all day tomorrow.”

Boris Said in the No. 2 Technique Chassis/STEEL-IT/Weaver Dodge Challenger was second fastest with a 1:44.767, followed by Keith Grant in the No. 5 Showtime Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro with a 1:46.081. Tomy Drissi in the No. 8 Lucas Oil Ford Mustang was fourth with a time of 1:48.179, and Jeff Hinkle rounded out the top five in his No. 9 TRGDataCenters.com/NetDepot.com Dodge Challenger with a time of 1:48.289.

Danny Lowry in the No. 42 BridgeHaul/Bennett International/Pitboxes.com Audi R8 LMS was the top driver in XGT with a time of 1:58.192.

In SGT, Lee Saunders in the No. 44 LandSearch LLC Dodge Viper was fastest with a lap time of 1:55.521, followed by Milton Grant in the No. 55 Sentry Self Storage/Springhill Suites Porsche 991.1 with a 1:58.446. Aaron Pierce in the No. 26 LSI Inc./Sam Pierce Chevrolet Corvette was third with a best lap time of 1:58.627.

Billy Griffin in the No. 14 Griffin Auto Care/Sheehan’s Towing Ford Mustang was first in GT with a time of 2:02.918.

Full qualifying results can be found here.

Earlier today in practice, Dyson topped the TA charts with a best time of 1:43.721. Matthew Brabham in the No. 20 allgram Ford Mustang was second with a 1:44.123, ahead of Said with a 1:44.977. Keith Grant was fourth with a time of 1:46.023, and Ken Thwaits in the No. 5 Franklin Road Apparel Camaro rounded out the top five with a 1:46.929.

Lowry was fastest in XGT with a 1:55.570.  

Saunders was quickest in SGT with a time of 1:56.395, followed by Carey Grant in the No. 6 Grant Racing 2 Porsche GT3 Cup with a 1:56.971 and Carey’s father Milton Grant with a 1:57.808.

Griffin was fastest in GT with a time of 2:04.749.

Full practice results can be found here.

The TA race will be contested Sunday, October 9, at 1:30 p.m. ET and will be streamed live here. The broadcast of tomorrow’s event, presented by Franklin Road Apparel, will air on CBS Sports Network on Thursday, October 13 at 8:00 p.m. ET, with an encore presentation on Saturday, October 15 at 12:30 a.m. ET.